The January solicits are packed with spoilers. Be wary in your local comic shop today.

DC Comics

As usual, things open with Blackest Night. The main event is taking the month off, but the tie-ins continue. Green Lantern #50 and Green Lantern Corps #44 both have spoilers right there on the covers as well as in the text. Blackest Night: The Flash #2 has a relatively safe cover, but the text again reveals the mastermind behind the Blackest Night who has not yet been revealed in the story itself. The Blackest Night: JSA and Blackest Night: Wonder Woman solicits seem safe. There are eight other Blackest Night issues this month, though, doing something different. DC is bringing back dead comics. Several cancelled comics of yesteryear are continuing the original numbering for one more issue in which title characters deal with the event. These are Atom and Hawkman #46, Catwoman #83, The Phantom Stranger #42, The Power of Shazam #48, The Question #37, Starman #81, Weird Western Tales #71, and Suicide Squad #67. Of the resurrected comics, only Atom and Hawkman is written by event scribe Geoff Johns, so that’s the one most likely to have lasting impact on the event.

In other corners of the DCU, Batman and Robin #7 starts the “Blackest Knight” storyline promising additional details surrounding the “death” of Bruce Wayne. The quotations are theirs. Meanwhile, in the Superman corner, Geoff Johns writes his last issue of Adventure Comics for the current run, characters other than Superman appear in most Superman titles, and the Superman/Batman series continues its in-continuity run. Elsewhere, Booster Gold maintains its Blue Beetle backup and has fallout from the Blackest Night crossover, the JMS run on “Brave and the Bold” continues with a Joker/Atom pairing, and James Robinson’s Justice League of America run kicks off with Mark Bagley on art on issue #41. The team lineup is spoiled in the solicitation. There also appears to be a considerable proportion of short story arcs, making me wonder of “Blackest Night” will have a status quo change for the DCU as a whole.

Marvel Comics

Marvel’s January covers are loaded with spoilers this month. It’s made unambiguously clear who will be under Captain America’s mask in January. Also, many of my prior speculations about Siege are confirmed both in text and cover images. I’ve got an idea about how the series will end, but if I’m right, it’s big and won’t be confirmed until April. It’s based in part on the TPB collections solicted for January. Due to the nature of this particular spoiler, I won’t post it here, but I am willing to share it on an individual basis if you contact me via e-mail directly.

The Siege is definitely the Siege of Asgard, and it has been described as the final act of Dark Reign. The four issue miniseries launches in January (confirming the suspision that Kieron Gillen’s run on Thor will end in time for someone new to take over in the aftermath of Siege), and the tie-ins start. There are many tie-ins at this point, with cover dress that is quite distinctive. The covers are split vertically, with the Siege marked in blue on the right half. This month includes Siege #1, Siege: Embedded #1 (which seems to be the Siege version of Frontline), New Avengers #61, Dark Avengers #13, Dark Wolverine #82 and Avengers: The Initiative #32. There’s also the Siege: Storming Asgard – Heroes and Villains handbook-style one shot. Mighty Avengers is sitting the event out, at least for January.

Marvel’s second event running in January is the Realm of Kings. This one seems to have safe solicitation text, but the cover images include a major spoiler in the wake of War of Kings. I’d really try to avoid them. On the non-event side, we’ve got “Captain America: Reborn #6,” which extends the miniseries by an issue, a new Jackpot is getting her own miniseries, the Gauntlet continues in Amazing Spider-Man with Rhino and Mysterio, and the vague Invincible Iron Man covers continue. There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the Iron Man title will continue after Siege and the “World’s Most Wanted” arc wrap up. I suspect the title is going to find a way to continue. With Siege promising to reunite the heroes, I expect Tony Stark to be the man in the iron mask for a while. The Deadpool #19 solicitation spoils the end of the current arc, and the S.W.O.R.D. solicitation promises the next appearance of one of the Runaways. There are also three “Road To” collections. There’s a “Road to Fall of Hulks” with no surprises; they’re mostly recent issues, and the first appearance of Amadeus Cho. “Captain America: Road to Reborn” collects the four most recent issues of Ed Brubaker’s run on the monthly title (which returns in January.) “Road to Siege” is the one with a surprise: most issues are recent and written by Bendis or J. Michael Straczynski. The oddball content is the inclusion of “Marvel Spotlight #30” from October 1976. This was the issue featuring Asgard’s Warriors Three. I have a copy I haven’t read yet, but I’ll be sure to do so before the Siege starts.